


Benji in Pawnee

by daughterofalderaan



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27562852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daughterofalderaan/pseuds/daughterofalderaan
Summary: Perhaps there's a certain freedom to settling down in one place.
Relationships: Leslie Knope/Ben Wyatt
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Benji in Pawnee

He is thinking of staying. Here. In Pawnee. The town that seems to have blacklisted green vegetables. Seriously, why can't he find broccoli in any of the grocery stores? 

The place has its downsides, yet it kicked him out of some kind of blasé spell that he hadn't even known he was under. And hey, staying in one place would mean not having continuously start from zero with new hairdressers. A hair cut is an intimate ordeal that too many people have had the pleasure of administering on him.

He's come to realize that he isn't superior for knowing more about Indiana government than other people. He's just a loser for having thought that to be a personality trait.

They all made fun of his socks the previous week. Tom and Donna and April and Ron and the guy from the health Health Department who has an off-color toupée and seems to spend more time hanging out in P&R than doing his own job. The socks have tiny purple lightsabers on them. He tried to explain that purple was objectively the coolest color of lightsaber, but the group does not back down when they decide that roasting time is in effect. 

He tried to hit the ball back by making fun of Ron's shoelaces, but they all gave him blank stares. He wasn't offended, though. Actually, he was kind of happy about it. Not the teasing itself, but the fact that he built up enough camaraderie with these people that they were comfortable teasing him to his face. 

It feels good to be part of a community. Even if he still exists somewhere on the outskirts, he's inside of the line. It's like the people here pulled him out of his solitary Hobbit hole. 

It’s Leslie he gets along with the best.

Sometimes after spending an above-average portion of the day with her, he sees her hair when he closes his eyes to sleep. The Tetris Effect—instead of falling blocks, it's perfect yellow locks clouding his mind's eye. She was given the brightest hair he's ever seen to match the most radiant personality he's ever had the pleasure to befriend.

Once, he dreamed she had bits of pancake stuck in her hair. They kept cropping back up after she picked them out. He started telling her about it the next day, but when he realized he was about to admit to dreaming about her, he started talking about pigeon facts instead. He doesn't know anything about pigeons.

Before he came to Pawnee, he thought he knew the meaning of the word tenacious. He didn't, because he didn't yet know Leslie Knope. Once something is in her grasp, she doesn't let go. 

It feels like he's becoming one of those things she has a hold on.

It would be nice to keep the bonds he's built with these people. He’d stopped building meaningful relationships with government workers for practicality's sake. No point when you know you're going to leave, right? The thing about Pawnee, though, is the people have taken him in, and they treat him with neighborly kindness.

These past years, he’s had no real home. Keeping up a permanent residence didn't make financial sense, and he hasn't considered Partridge home since _that_ particular brand of fiasco. 

He'll accept Chris' job offer. Perhaps there's a certain freedom to settling in one place. 

All the moving around was starting to wear down on him anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Catch me [over here](https://freetobegrace.tumblr.com/) on tumblr
> 
> Greetings fellow people with whom Ben and Leslie still hecks up. Like seriously, isn't season 3 of Parks n Rec the best!!!?


End file.
